How Much?
by Deadly Regret
Summary: Kagome asks 'how much'. She didn't like Inuyasha's answer. She made him happy and at the same time sad.


_Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha._

_Warning: Sad_

**How Much?**

"You care for her." It was a woman's voice laced with sadness.

"Yes, I do." This one was a male's voice embraced in hope.

"You want her." The voice was sadder.

"With my very being." This voice remained the same.

"You need her." Tears fell down her face. Her brown eyes filled with great pain.

There was silence between the two; however, the surrounding was of cheerfulness and joy, the very opposite of the situation. Birds sung and flew around each other in the sky that was no longer tainted. Tree branches swayed back and forth. Rivers once contaminated with Miasma were now fresh and exhilarating. The ground coated in grass and flowers instead of blood and corpse. Midnight black hair fell over the females shoulders as she turned to the man- the hanyou who held her heart, break it. To hell with unrequited love. Her face held a sad smile and scars of tears that had dried with the wind blowing so fiercely. The wind blew her bangs in different directions, uncovering her eyes. A question was within them. She was asking him a question she could not bring herself to ask. She was scared of the answer, the look his eyes held, and the way he flinched at her unasked question. That was her answer, but she wanted him to say it. Say that he didn't love her. She who wouldn't change him for the world unlike his lover... Funny how she use to dream of being called that. _His_.

She could never be his lover. She would have to the undead, feed off of souls, pinned him to a tree, tried to kill him, betray him, and try to take him to hell for a crime he didn't commit. It hurt so much. It hurt to know that he would choose the dead over the living. A fool was what her companions and Lady Kaede called him, but she called him beautiful, unique, and everything she wanted or would ever need. She in return became a fool for loving him. A fool in love was what she dubed herself as.

His golden eyes held regret, sorrow, and pain. The moonlight shined upon them making them all the more intresting- one of a kind. His fuzzy ears twitched at every little sound. Slowly, as though unsure, he reached and held the woman's hand in his, caressing her hand in attempt to prepare her for something or make her be strong. He stared at their hands joined together. A woman similar to the woman he sat with now flashed in his mind and he pulled his hand away. His lips parted, but nothing came out besides a sigh.

Minutes passed and he finally spoke. "I love her..."

The wind caught a hold of his words and carried them repeatedly through the woman's ears. There was no echo in her head for the words constantly pounded at her heart. Her small, frail looking hands tightend into a fist with pain, she couldn't be angry at him. He only spoke the truth. The truth hurt and now she had to get over it. Get over not being loved by the one she loved. Get over at being second best.

She stood and walked to the edge of the woods in the clearing, her head held down. She thought herself weak to lose her love to the dead. After all she wasn't really good with a bow, she wasn't graceful, beautiful, powerful, emotionless, undead, nor was she _her_. She could never be...

"Kikyou..." The male whisperd shocked. He stood and took a step forward before stopping himself. He couldn't ignore the girl he was talking to. This was really impotant, but wasn't she imortant?!

"Inuyasha," asked the woman who resembled Kikyou.

Kikyou simply stood there because she knew the woman knew she was there. Inuyasha had just announced her presence.

"Yes, Kagome?" He asked softly, turning to face her.

"How much?" She asked. She wasn't specific because she knew he knew 'how much' about what.

"Kagome..." He stared at her back until he looked at the ground. "With my heart and soul."

He waited for a responce. Kikyou waited for a responce. All of nature waited for a responce. As we do we now wait for a responce. A responce that had the spirits anxious.

Kagome's right hand dug into her skirt pocket and pulled out a pink sphere. She stared at it with not hatred, but an emotion she had only looked at Naraku with. Endless pity. As she stood there in thought, her tears finally came to a stop. Bringing her hand to her chest, she kissed the pink jewel and closed her fading brown eyes. Eyes so dull it looked as though that life hand never filled them. Lips once a light pink now a light blue. Once beautifully colored olive skin now so pale.

Her light blue lips parted and she spoke so soft that not even Inuyasha could hear. "Take away everyone's pain and give Kikyou her rightful soul..."

**500 years into the future**

A mother walked outside to check up on the shrine's grounds. She felt something wrong. She didn't know what, but something was. Her heart hurt and felt like it was being squeezed. It hurt to breath. Something tugged at her heart and so she followed, hoping the pain would lessen. It led, whatever it was, her to its destination.

Out of no where a heart wenching cry tore itself from between her lips. Her knees now weak buckled and she fell to the ground. She shook her head 'no' contiously while screaming 'Not my baby!'. Her arms wrapped themselves around her shaken form as she rocked back and forth. Tears soaked her apron and kimono. Her scream brought out a boy and elderly man.

They rushed to her side and asked her what was wrong, but all she could do was point. The boy and the elderly man both fell to their knees and cried. Tears too soaked their clothing. Their sobs echoing in their heart. A pain like no ther filling where happy memories of a fifteen year old girl resided.

Sap leaked from the God Tree. It too was crying. How odd that even nature would cry over one person you say. Well, one person may be just that to you, but you maybe the world to them, so live as long as you can.

Engraved into the God Tree in old japanese writing were the words:

_Here lies a brave, loving, beautiful woman-child. Here lies a friend, a loved one, a mother, a sister, and the glue to the world... Here lies Kagome Higurashi. She was her own person. She had her own soul. She gave us her life._


End file.
